Zamfara Professionals League on Sunday thanked President Bola Tinubu for directing Executive Secretary of Solid Minerals Development Fund , Hajiya Fatimah Shinkafi to continue her patriotic service to the nation , highlighting the need to put the young financial institution on solid foundation.
Reacting to the re-appointment in a statement signed by its President, Yunana Shibkau, the League said Shinkafi has proven that women professionals of Northern origin could perform excellently in the financial sector by building fragile financial institutions such as the SMDF into solid intervention platforms to solve pertinent national challenges.
It recalled the initiative of the SMDF to partner with the Africa Finance Corporation, AFC to provide funding for early stage mineral development projects such as exploration funding.
The project, according to the statement, which attracted 94 applicants in the first year, recorded 14 hopefuls currently in the second stage of competing for the funds.
The League also narrated SMDF’s intervention in projects across the country on a bid to bridge the gap left by the absence of junior miners.
It said extending her term will enable the administration of Shinkafi at the SMDF to execute new projects such as the Gold Aggregator Scheme which has yielded billions of naira worth of gold reserves to the Central.Bank of Nigeria.
Reacting to allegations of tenure limitation in a newspaper, the League said the provisions of sections 34, 35 and 36 of the Nigerian Mining and Minerals Act do not set a limit on the tenure of the Executive Secretary , adding that the President acted in accordance with the law.
“It is our position that, considering the fragile and pioneering status of the SMDF, it will be suicidal to hand over to a novice who lacks the institutional memory that has enabled the SMDF to grow its teething years.
That will disrupt the trail blazing initiatives of the current administration and cause it to lose focus from its efforts to build a financial intervention agency that must ensure returns on investment.”
The statement urged all concerned stakeholders to support the Shinkafi-led SMDF for enhanced development of solid mineral sector and the region.
